1. Technical Field
The disclosed embodiments relate to the display of both sponsored and organic search results on a search results page, and more particularly, to optimizing delivery of the sponsored search results in additional columns of varying location depending on a level of commerciality of a search query.
2. Related Art
Today, all three major internet search engines—Yahoo! of Sunnyvale, Calif., Google of Mountain View, Calif., and Microsoft of Redmond, Wash.—have the same general layout for search results pages. They all use two text columns: one wide column at the left (or west) to list the algorithmic (or organic) search results and one narrow column at the right (or east) to list the sponsored search results, if any. This layout started from the early age of the search engine in the 1990's when computers had small screens due to cathode ray tube (CRT) technology. On a wide screen as displayed on monitors with current flat screen technology, this layout leaves a lot of space between the two columns and looks outdated.
Many search terms or queries submitted to search engines today are commercial in nature in that the searcher seeks a purchasing opportunity, whether a good or service, or to purchase information. For commercial search terms, with today's two-column results pages, search engines are not able to display more sponsored links in the first page of search results, which is the most important page because it is the page from which the majority of click traffic is derived. Usually the right column displays, at the most, eight sponsored results, and users need to click to the next page to find more results, which they rarely do. Moreover, for these search terms, because of the success of search engine optimization (SEO) employed by commercial companies, the organic results in the first pages are largely commercial and often duplicate the sponsored search results on the first page. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via natural (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results. Because the organic results are in the more noticeable left column, users are likely to click on them and land on the same commercial pages as they would have had they clicked on a corresponding sponsored search result, but without paying sufficient attention to the sponsored right column. In this way, search engines lose revenue opportunities if they are paid per click (PPC) on each sponsored search result, as will be explained in more detail below.
Yahoo! Dude and the similar Google and MSN products are trying to solve the problem by placing a few, often two to four, sponsored advertisements (“ads”) in north advertisement positions, which are positions located at the top of the search results page above the organic search results. Because north advertisements push the organic results down, however, searchers need to scroll down to see the organic search results. Forcing searchers to scroll down to see organic search results is in contravention of their interests, which include quickly finding relevant, organic listings. Therefore, all three major search engines limit the usage of advertising in north positions and develop complex algorithms to dynamically adjust the number of north advertisements in order to balance user interests with revenue opportunities. Although this balance is attempted, it is imperfect. In the two-column layout discussed above, the search engine provider will need to use north advertising space to increase revenue even if it is known to hurt user satisfaction to some degree. For search terms that are commercial, search engines are unable to display more sponsored links on the first page with the traditional two-column format.